mIRC is a shareware Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client for Microsoft Windows, created in 1995 and developed by Khaled Mardam-Bey. Although it is a fully functional chat utility, its integrated scripting language makes it extensible and versatile. For other uses, see Software developer (disambiguation). ... Code complete redirects here. ... is the 141st day of the year (142nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Era (or Anno Domini), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... An operating system (OS) is a software that manages computer resources and provides programmers with an interface used to access those resources. ... Windows redirects here. ... Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of instant communication over the Internet. ... A software license is a legal agreement which may take the form of a proprietary or gratuitous license as well as a memorandum of contract between a producer and a user of computer software. ... Proprietary software is software with restrictions on copying and modifying as enforced by the proprietor. ... A website (alternatively, web site or Web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that is hosted on one or more web servers, usually accessible via the Internet. ... Look up shareware in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... mIRC scripts editor (inbuilt) The mIRC scripting language is code written in the scripting language embedded in mIRC, a popular IRC client for Windows. ...

mIRC has been downloaded over fourteen million times from CNET's download.com service since it was added on November 4, 2007.^[1] Nielsen Net Rankings also ranked mIRC among the top 10 most popular Internet applications in 2003.^[2] Download. ...

It is unknown if the "m" in mIRC stands for anything — Khaled's personal FAQ explains that "it quite possibly stands for 'moo', or perhaps even MU."^[3] Look up MU, Mu, mu in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

History

Khaled Mardam-Bey decided to create mIRC because he found the first IRC client for Windows, WinIRC, lacked some basic IRC features. Then he continued developing it due to the challenge and the fact that people appreciated his work. The subsequent popularity allowed him to make a living out of mIRC. It costs $20 to register it after the 30-day evaluation period, though no functions are disabled if mIRC is run for longer than 30 days unregistered; a nag screen merely delays the start of the program. This article is about Internet Relay Chat. ... In computing, a client is a system that accesses a (remote) service on another computer by some kind of network. ... Windows redirects here. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

In 2008, mIRC started offering an option where users can register mIRC for free via TrialPay, a business solution that offers free registration of software if users make purchases at online retailers or sign up for trial periods of other services.

Main features

mIRC has a number of features that set it apart from other IRC clients. One of the more obvious differences is its own advanced scripting language (see below) which is further developed with each version. The scripting language can be used to make minor changes to the program like custom commands (aliases), but can also be used to completely alter the behaviour and appearance of mIRC. Another widely used feature is mIRC's file sharing abilities, via the DCC protocol. It also has a built in file server. Direct Client-to-Client (DCC) is an IRC-related sub-protocol enabling peers to interconnect using an IRC server for handshaking in order to exchange files or perform non-relayed chats. ...

Over the years various other features that have often been suggested by users have been incorporated. This includes support for multiple server connections, SSL, UTF-8 display support and an option to view channels and notify lists in a treebar format rather than the default switchbar. mIRC is still in active development but it is very rarely announced what features will be introduced in the future. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS), its successor, are cryptographic protocols which provide secure communications on the Internet. ... UTF-8 (8-bit UCS/Unicode Transformation Format) is a variable-length character encoding for Unicode. ...

mIRC scripting

Main article: mIRC scripting language

With mIRC Scripting, sometimes referred to as mSL^{[citation needed]}, one can cause a client to process certain tasks in response to specific events. mIRC scripts editor (inbuilt) The mIRC scripting language is code written in the scripting language embedded in mIRC, a popular IRC client for Windows. ...

mIRC scripting is not limited to IRC related events and commands. There is also support for COM objects, calling DLLs, sockets and dialog boxes, amongst other things. This allows the client to be used in a variety of ways beyond chatting, for example as an IRC bot, a media player, a web HTML parser or for other entertainment purposes such as mIRC games. In practice however mIRC will not be used solely for such specific purposes, but rather they are addons for the client, which will otherwise be used for chatting. Component Object Model (COM) is a platform for software componentry introduced by Microsoft in 1993. ... This article is about dynamic libraries implemented by Microsoft. ... An Internet socket (or commonly, a socket or network socket), is a communication end-point unique to a machine communicating on an Internet Protocol-based network, such as the Internet. ... Example of dialog box from Microsoft Windows Dialog boxes are special windows which are used by computer programs or by the operating system to display information to the user, or to get a response if needed. ... An IRC bot performing a simple task. ... HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages. ... An example of parsing a mathematical expression. ... An mIRC game is a computer game coded in the mIRC scripting language. ... For other uses, see Plug in. ...

Due to the level of access the language has with a user's computer, for example, being able to rename and delete files, a number of abusive scripts have been made. Perhaps one of the more prominent examples of abuse was that executed with the $decode identifier which decodes a given encoded string. Many users who did not understand this were misguided into decoding strings which executed commands on their systems, such messages were disguised as a fake promise of ops in an IRC channel. However, this led to changes being made in version 6.17 so $decode is now disabled by default and various other features which can be considered 'dangerous' are able to be locked.

Use by U.S. Military

mIRC has been spotted in use in the U.S. military as a battlefield communications system: The armed forces of the United States of America consist of the United States Army United States Navy United States Air Force United States Marine Corps United States Coast Guard Note: The United States Coast Guard has both military and law enforcement functions. ...

"A glance at the mIRC window on my workstation was enough to tell me that the CFLC Air Defence Artillery cell was informing the Combined Air Operations Centre Time Sensitive Targeting cell of the location of the launch site. Within a matter of minutes a flight of two A-10 aircraft, loitering in the area for just this eventuality, were being vectored toward it." ^[4]

Criticism

Onno Tijdgat, author of IRCle, criticizes mIRC's color format, arguing that it uses a flawed design and follows no common standard.^[5] Khaled Mardam-Bey responded to this criticism, observing that there was no common standard between IRC clients at the time so using any one existing format would "have annoyed those clients that didn't use that particular format". Ultimately this led to him creating a new format designed for ease of use, however he acknowledged that "the design should have been more robust."^[6] Ircle (sometimes spelled IRCle) is an IRC client written by Onno Tijdgat for the Macintosh computer platform. ...

See also

• Comparison of IRC clients
• mIRC Scripting Language

This is a comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients. ... mIRC scripts editor (inbuilt) The mIRC scripting language is code written in the scripting language embedded in mIRC, a popular IRC client for Windows. ...

References

2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Era (or Anno Domini), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 134th day of the year (135th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 106th day of the year (107th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Era (or Anno Domini), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Era (or Anno Domini), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 133rd day of the year (134th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Official website
• Official website of mIRC's author
• mircscripts.us
• mircscripts.com
• mircscripts.org
• mIRC Online Manual — documentation in single-page HTML format
• website for mIRC help channel on DALnet IRC network — website for DALnet help channel for this IRC client software